What we can learn from Indian cricket

by Rex Clementine

Faced with one of the game’s biggest corruption scandals, Indian cricket turned to the country’s Supreme Court to save the sport from its embarrassment and predicament. That nation’s highest court appointed former Chief Justice Rajendra Lodha to look into grievances of Indian cricket and later implemented the recommendations made by the judge to reform cricket in the country. As a result, one of the towering figures of world cricket and business tycoon N. Srinivasan met his waterloo. Five years on, Indian cricket board has become a vibrant unit.

From a cricket board that was run by stakeholders from cricket associations with little corporate background, Indian cricket has gone to another extreme handing over the day today running of the sport to professionals. The state association representatives are there, but after the court intervention, their roles are monitored and there are age and term limits for the officials who serve the game in an honourary capacity.

The Supreme Court ensured that there was no room for conflict of interest in Indian cricket. Some big names in the sport were cut to size. Today India is setting the benchmark for professionalism in cricket that has been followed by both England and Australia. Time was when Lord’s and MCG used to set the standards on how the game should be run. Now we are looking up to Bombay.

Fifteen years ago, if you had visited Bombay, you would have been surprised at where the Board of Control for Cricket in India was situated. The world’s richest board was at a tiny building at the Cricket Club of India, the ground where Sri Lanka played a Test match in 2009. The staircase leading to the board was narrow, dirty and was awful. A few years ago, BCCI moved to the more posh Wankehede Stadium with state of the art facilities.

Given the global television market, Indian cricket had huge potential and through the IPL the country entered new territory with cash flow entering the board coffers like never before. India did well not only to look after the current players but introduce a lucrative pension scheme for not just those who had represented India but for the country’s former First Class cricketers as well.

The lifestyles of modern players in India changed with T-20 format becoming immensely popular. But to BCCI’s credit, they did not ignore Test cricket. It is commendable to see that every year Indian cricket team playing a record number of Test matches. They are winning too, of all places at Gabba, where Australia had been unbeaten for more than 30 years. So strong is their bench strength that you see at occasions India fielding a Test team and an ODI side at the same time in different continents. The rest of the world can only watch and marvel.

While most of us Asian nations are heavily dependent on foreign coaching staff, India has employed all local coaches. The likes of Ravi Shastri, Anil Kumble and Rahul Dravid are proving that they are as good as Justin Langer, Trevor Bayliss and Andy Flower.

India also are lucky to have players like Virat Kohli whose work ethic is outrageous. With the captain setting the benchmark, the rest of the team merely follow. India implemented the minimum fitness standards like the two kilometer run much before other teams and there’s no room in Indian cricket for the fainthearted. Oh by the way, there are no protests in Madras, Calcutta or Bangalore to include players who fail fitness tests. We have so much to learn from India.